Thursday, September 26, 2013

Time Shares Coming to the Sloop....Kinda

We were expecting to read about a big transformation of an existing hotel into a resort type of time share you might find in Florida. Well not so much:

A Boca Raton, Fla.-based time-share company is dipping its toes into the Chicago waters, paying nearly $4.9 million for 12 units in the Wyndham Blake hotel in the South Loop.

But Bluegreen Corp. is betting on a hospitality concept that's unproven here despite its popularity in resort destinations such as Hawaii and the Caribbean.

12 units will pretty won't change anything around here. Anyway, it's an interesting quick read on a shift in strategy for time shares.

On a different but related topic, we highly suggest watching a fascinating documentary about the CEO of Westgate Resorts (one of the largest time share companies in the world). It showcases what happened to their business at the height of the real estate meltdown: